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Mounds of snow removed from Bethlehem streets pile up Thursday at the western end of Sand Island. The area is slightly larger than a football field and nearly full with piles more than 10 feet tall.
(Express-Times Photo | BILL ADAMS)

Rain and warmer temperatures forecast today raised hopes that snow piles will soften, allowing plows into neighborhoods socked in by ice and snow for the past week.

But the weather also brings concerns about flooding in poor drainage areas and more structural collapses as the precipitation and warmth redistribute weight across roofs already under stress, experts said.

"We're worrying about roof collapses but we're also concerned about the flooding of our streams, the small streams and rivers flooding -- not so much the Delaware River at this point, but we are starting to look in that direction towards the March and April time frame," said Frank Wheatley, Warren County public safety director and emergency management coordinator.

South 10th Street resident Scott Lucas said he has called the mayor's office multiple times about side streets with no parking, poor visibility at intersections and storm drains covered in snow.

"All you've got to do is get a bulldozer and a couple of dump trucks and do one side," Lucas said. "Just pick up the mounds of snow so people can park."

Warmup, then refreeze

The warmup today and Saturday could make the snow soft enough to resume plowing, as opposed to removing it, Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said Thursday.

Subfreezing temperatures are forecast to return next week, "and everything will refreeze and it'll be like concrete again," said Scott Lindenmuth, director of emergency services for Lehigh County.

Easton following last week's storm focused removal efforts on snow emergency routes first and, with help from contracted private crews, moved on to other two-way streets and clearing snow mounds at intersections. Last week's storm will cost the city an estimated $250,000 in employee and contract costs as crews work day and night, Panto said. Then there are the potholes, projected to cost the city about $100,000 to fix once the weather breaks.

"Everyone's frustrated, including the city crews," he said. "They've worked real hard."

Panto said, in illustrating the frustration, that there have been incidents where residents have threatened to throw their shovels through the windshields of city vehicles.

Snow piles have reduced parking spots on some streets by an estimated 40 to 50 percent, Panto said. Trash collection has been delayed because the city's contract hauler can't get down snow-narrowed streets, prompting the city to pitch in with its smaller compacter truck.

School buses are having problems, too. An Easton Area School District bus struck a parked car's mirror about 7:20 a.m. Thursday at North Ninth Street and Wood Avenue, said Sue Ferretti, administrative assistant of operations. About 8:15 a.m. on Berwick Street, another district bus was struck by a vehicle trying to squeeze between the bus and snow banks, said Carol Lear, of the superintendent of school's office. In both cases, students on the buses escaped injury.

Bus drivers "are doing a great job" in very difficult conditions, said Ferretti, who hopes for a dent in the leftover snow from today's rain and warmup.

Rainfall could total a quarter-inch to a half-inch across the region, the National Weather Service said.

"The expected rainfall combined with snow melt will likely cause poor drainage, nuisance flooding," a weather service forecast Thursday afternoon said. "In addition, hydrologic models do indicate that some of the larger streams and rivers across the region will have significant rises. Several could come to close or exceed flood stage. ... The threat of flooding will significantly increase if rainfall amounts approach" an inch.

A potential problem could be ice jams breaking loose upstream and gathering at dams or bridges, said Lindenmuth, of Lehigh County.

"Those choke points, that will be what we really want to watch because that will just gather and there's not much that we can do," he said.

Clearing drains, roofs

Clogged storm drains could cause some street flooding today into the weekend, said emergency management coordinators, who urge residents to try to clear storm drains.

On rooftops, melting snow and rain could back up at downspouts clogged with ice. The snow melt could also redistribute weight across roofs, possibly onto weakened portions.

"That's why well after an event you see some of these porches collapsing because they're weak," said Joe Miketta, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service at Mount Holly, N.J.

Roofs, porches, homes and barns have been collapsing under the weight of the winter weather across the region.

"It's always a concern," Wheatley said. "We've just got to wait until the snow melts. I don't want to advocate going up onto their roofs and shoveling them off."

Hunterdon County Emergency Management Coordinator Brayden Fahey, on the other hand, said it's up to residents whether to try to clear roofs -- but it might be a good idea. A compromise, the weather service's Miketta said, is using a sturdy rake from ground level if possible.

In any case, residents should watch for cracks or dripping water and listen for creaking -- all signs a structure is failing -- and evacuate if necessary, officials said.

"The best advice that we can give to someone is obviously, they're familiar with their property so if something doesn't look right, it's probably not," Fahey said.

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ROOFTOP SNOW AND ICE

Local emergency management coordinators are divided over trying to clear built-up snow and ice from roofs. The Tampa, Fla.-based Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety says removal with a snow rake from the ground or by hiring a professional should be considered if weights grow dangerous.

Unless they are decayed or damaged, most residential roofs should support 20 pounds per square foot of snow before becoming stressed, according to the institute. The group offers the following guidelines for estimating weight:

Fresh snow: 10-12 inches of new snow is equal to an inch of water, or about 5 pounds per square foot of roof space, so you could have up to 4 feet of new snow before the roof will become stressed.

Packed snow: 3-5 inches of old snow is equal to an inch of water, so anything more than 2 feet of old snow could be too much for your roof to handle.

Total accumulated weight: 2 feet of old snow and 2 feet of new snow could weigh as much as 60 pounds per square foot of roof space, which is beyond the typical snow load capacity of most roofs.